What You Need to Know About Artificial Turf for an Evergreen Lawn

Property owners can attest to how frustrating it can be to maintain a proper lawn. All you want is a spot of green in your yard, but the lengths you need to get through can be tedious and expensive, not to mention very temporary. It’s something of a vicious cycle, and for some people, it just simply has to stop.

For that, they turn to another alternative for live grass, which is supposed to be a lot more viable and cost-efficient. Artificial turf has been taking the landscaping world by storm, and it’s about time you sit up and take notice. Here are some of the more important facts about it if you want to finally enjoy an evergreen lawn.

Cost-Efficiency

One of the first things about synthetic grass that attracts people is its lack of need for soil, thus requiring very minimal maintenance. Sure, it’s going to cost you a pretty penny upfront (some $5 to $20 per square foot), but once it’s there, you don’t have to think about any other costs. There’s no need to spend gallons of water to keep it lush and green, no need to power up a mower to keep it trimmed, and no need to use fertilizers to keep them healthy.

With all these requirements gone, you can literally just roll out your own artificial turf and enjoy that sudden pop of color in your property. Not to mention the fact that they’re good to go for as much as 20 years, especially if you care for it well. That’s up to 20 years of year-round lawn perfection, and truly, that is a priceless investment.

Versatility

And who’s to say that you can only put grass in your front lawn or backyard? Urban dwellers do not have as much of the luxury of having their own space for parking, much more for a lawn, but that shouldn’t keep them from having a little garden property in their small space. Since these synthetic turf only need a one-time installation, it can be used practically anywhere—in the corner of your condo, out on your balcony, perhaps the building rooftop even. It’s up to you to maximize its use with your creativity, really.

It’s not just residential and business owners that are enjoying having synthetic turf around, in fact. Sports centers like football stadiums and golf ranges are also now seriously looking into investing in these plastics for their establishments, and pretty much for the same reason that is cost-efficiency. Particularly for activities like this that have some component of rough play in them, the synthetic turf makes for a great alternative to natural grass because they won’t have to keep patching it up.

Football cleats, kicking, running, and sliding are just some of the activities that can damage a football field. Meanwhile, putting for golf can also chip away at the ground, and chuck away at the grass. Although the fields or the range may be subjected to these kinds of activity on the regular, they are still expected to look good, which can entail a whole lot of money and effort. This concern is not going to be an issue at all with synthetic turf. At most, it only needs to be washed once in a while to get out stains and dirt, but there’s no need for the whole ritual of costly lawn maintenance.

Installation

Ideally, artificial grass installation should only take one time, so make sure you get it right the first time. It’s going to cost you a lot more if you’ll have to make any corrections later on, so you might as well just hand the task over to someone who does the job as a profession.

Most people think that installing artificial turf is something that they can do on their own—even without experience—especially if the area to be covered is not all that big anyway. However, what they don’t realize is that the task requires certain know-how, as well as the right equipment and tools, in order to pull it off properly.

For one, installing artificial turf is not quite like rolling out a carpet. Because you are essentially replacing the natural lawn, you need to make sure that the ground will be properly covered. There will be some digging required into the soil so as to fit the base of the turf panels securely. Otherwise, if you just lay it on top of the soil, then this will get moved around when people and pets walk or run over it. At least three inches is needed for this, and though you might say it’s “just” 3 inches, it still is quite the depth considering how many square feet of hard soil, rocks, roots you’ll have to deal with.

Closing the seams of the panels is also going to be quite the hard work, because it will essentially be the sewing together of both ends of the turf material. The idea is to piece them seamlessly to give the illusion that it is one continuous field of grass. Especially if it’s going to be used for a sports field, like in football, you can’t afford to have seams bursting or misaligned; these can cause serious accidents like trips and falls. Seaming is highly technical and actually bears the brunt of the workload for installing artificial turf. Improper seaming can also make the material more prone to faster wear and tear, and so you’ll miss out on the opportunity to make the most out of the turf for longer.

Time Savings

It’s not just the money and effort that you can save up on when you leave the installation to the pros; you’ll also be saving precious time as well. Instead of breaking your back fumbling through a DIY that you clearly have no idea how to follow through with, you can instead be working on other more important matters for you, such as planning the many wonderful outdoor events you can be hosting with your perfectly immaculate lawn.

Minimize the risk for installation errors, and do away with the unnecessary correction costs. Get an installer in the first place so you can just get ready to enjoy your turf. Professional companies like Sunburst Landscaping can help you out in this regard.

Sources:

Why Fake Grass is Gaining Popularity. HouseLogic.com.
Should You Fake the Lawn? Sunset.com.